Over Exposed?

Heidi could hear me, she could hear the click of the camera but didn't see me as I leaned and put the camera directly over her head as she laid in her chair. She has been the smartest of us all today. No sense in trying to make a slow afternoon faster when you can just kick back and enjoy what's there. No tv, no music, no sounds around .. just pure quietness.

I couldn't tell if it was raining again in the early afternoon. Stella was still sleeping after her lunchtime kibble. So was Heidi and I was nodding out at times. You can only play so many games of Mahjong in a day. Sometimes reading a book is like work, not enjoyable. I had no idea where to go, even if I were to take a drive. So I did what Heidi was doing ... I just sat back, relaxed and listened.

Either the water is rising underground or it has rained a little since our walk this morning. One step into the field felt like it was muddier than this morning. The wet leaves make it slick like snow but I was still paying attention and making sure that Stella didn't go near the land of burrs.

The afternoon pace is slow, one paw at a time. I was way out in front by the time she started moving my direction. By the way she looked I wasn't sure that she wanted to make this walk.

That tree limb fell in high winds in February 2009. With the windows closed and the tv tuned to an IU basketball game I could still hear it cracking as it fell. The next morning utility trucks all over the highway a few houses down.

I found out there was a tornado that has passed through that night. Near my house a utility pole had been snapped in half like a toothpick ... but the ballgame went on. I was totally unaware of what was going on outside.

It has been a long time since she went to the far corner of the field. I found out she went there for one reason and one reason only ... a lot of verbal herding took place and a small lecture as we returned to the path. 

Whatever it was, it was so good she stopped a few times to look back in that direction.

Now it was the sound of a very small dog barking. It's the same one as the other morning that stopped Stella in her tracks. I walked into the yard and waited, just so I could see what she would do.

In the north backyard where I cut a small tree down a few years ago.

After letting Stella be on her own for the whole walk, not counting the time I had to lead her back to the path away from the gross stuff she was eating ... she decided she wasn't coming in the house. She was going on strike.

So I left her, walked inside, took off my coat, poured a glass of water and I hear a bump against my storm door. That is the sound of her pushing the door with her nose to let me know she wants inside. I know she changed her mind awfully quick after I left her and was out of her view.

I was just reminded by a fellow Apple Watch user, that I cannot use just the watch even with the cellular feature. All that cellular feature does is let me use the watch when I am away from the house without taking my phone with me. I need the phone to download data the watch collects and to do the updates for the watch when they are released.

I knew there was a reason I wanted to keep my phone. BTW, she has told me that exact reason more than one time and I keep forgetting.

I'm going to set this post aside and let it brew for a while at 2:36pm.

Oh ... that's it ... now I remember what all of this was about. The OVER EXPOSURE????

A photo guru of mine saw my new blog, the photos from the Canon and thought my pictures were over exposed. So before this afternoon's walk I decreased the exposure on the camera three clicks to start and after a couple or three pictures I moved it up a click for a net decrease of two clicks on the exposure setting. I see a big difference in these photos compared to the last few weeks for the ones taken outside.

About the time I was having a snack, high protein day ... I checked the DVR to see if any new shows were recorded that I might watch this afternoon. I was in luck ... Homestead Rescue and Life Below Zero had shows listed. With a new season starting Building Off The Grid, I'll add that to the DVR timer to record only the new episodes.

It's nice to have a 2TB hard drive in the DVR. After 11 months I still have not filled one half of it. Later on once I need some space I can download those to an external hard drive. BUT THERE'S A CATCH !!!

To replay those ballgames or movies I have kept, I can only see them on a Dish Network system. If I were to eventually move to DirecTv or a streaming service, due to their coding and file structure all those ballgames and movies would be worthless.

Heidi has turned into a food begging monster. She has gotten to the point of wanting everything that I am eating. If she hears a cabinet door or refrigerator door opened, or the smell of cooked food ... she is right there looking up at me wagging her tail. She wasn't like that six months ago.

A day closer to snow Saturday night and the coldest temps yet on Sunday, here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

A Surprise Starts Friday!!

It wasn't that I woke up that much earlier today nor was it that I had a small load of laundry washed and dried by 7am. Nothing happened out of the ordinary on the morning walk with Stella, although she was on a different path than I had seen her on in a long time. The underground water is really rising to the top today, from the backyard to on the path from start to finish.

In fact the path was so saturated that I had to walk on the edge of it in the taller grass most of the way. So what is the surprise that was important enough to grab the title of this post????

A few weeks ago after doing a small load of laundry, meaning the water setting on my old Kenmore washer was set to "half" ... I mention that just to emphasize there wasn't a big chance of losing a fairly new wool sock in that load of laundry. I mean where could it go??? I remember last year pulling that same washer out of the closet to where I could turn it on it's side so I could see underneath as I was checking for a water leak.

No, the washer was not leaking. I saw during that inspection there just isn't a lot of things inside that washer cabinet. There was definitely no place a lost sock could go to during a wash cycle. Yet, weeks ago as I pulled clothes out of the dryer ... that new wool sock was missing. I was pissed.

Stella was so lazy this morning that instead of walking over to the edge of the field she only leaned as far as she could to smell that area. She didn't leave the path until the first turn. Different day brings different bloodhound routines. :)

So while that load of laundry was being washed, I pulled out my 33 year old Patagonia thermal long sleeve shirt ... it's still the best skin layer shirt I have, better than anything new I have bought since. I decided since that worked so well keeping me warm that instead of wearing the Columbia Sportswear fleece, I'd put on a normal sweatshirt.

So I am sitting at the computer doing my normal online morning reading when I feel something near my armpit. I reach under my sweatshirt hoping to pulls something out of from under it ... but nothing was there!!! Strange feeling.

It was there again. So this time I took off the sweatshirt, seeing nothing falling out of it, but I know the cause of that strange feeling near my armpit is caused by the sweatshirt in someway. I reach into the upper sleeve of the sweatshirt and pull out the missing sock!!!

You don't realize how something so small in life in general could give me such happiness. I was thrilled !!! To me there is nothing worse than missing socks, nothing. Especially wool socks in the winter, that were bought on sale.

So a sock is found, the laundry finished by 7am, today is starting off great. Plans and/or schedule are flexible of coarse but right now early this morning there is nothing I can think of doing ... unless I take a small trip around the area and take some photos of different .... hmmm ... buildings???

The Canon G9 was used this walk again this morning, shooting in manual mode so I can use the settings I set for color, contrast, sharpness, tone, etc. A couple of them I left at the default setting but by all the testing the past two weeks I finally have found the correct settings for the type of pictures I take.

Why not shoot in automatic? I do with the Nikon 3200. Well for some reason this camera's 'automatic' setting captures Stella's color, deeper and darker, too dark and I cannot adjust the light or the saturation to correct it. There is just basically too much color saturation using the automatic mode. Even those strings of hay are too dark and too colorful ... so I use the manual mode that has automatic focusing.

Stella decided she was going to explore 30' or 40' to the left of the path. I don't know what she had found but she was 'on a mission' of some type. Very focused. Almost too focused for her.

You can barely see a path of mashed down grass she is following over to the corner of the gully. She was in the 'search' mode today and not the 'eating' mode. That is always a good thing. :)

That's my path right there, muddy, soggy, you name it. I walked to the left of it on the taller grass. Stella walked right over it since she doesn't like getting her paws wet.

Believe it or not, there was no 'verbal herding' today. She was on her own from start to finish. She must have known it was a Friday, one of the best days of the week even if you are retired. There is just something about it being a Friday.

She followed that path most of the way home ... she was another surprise for the day.

We walk into the backyard and obviously the field cat had been in the area during the night. She explored every inch from there to the last corner but only along the very edge of the yard. I need to buy some sort of field camera and mount it low on the old fence post (?) or a tree so I can see what kind of animal activity I have around the house while we are sleeping.

I tried but could only grab one part of her full body shake and her skin going in different directions.

She stood and thought for a few minutes before deciding it was time to go back inside. She made the right turn walking right up to the side of the house, then followed that to the carport. I barely caught her as she walked around the corner.

Heidi woke from her morning nap about the time I was downloading pictures into the computer but after drinking a lot of water (normal) instead of heading to the door to go outside (normal routine), she jumped on 'her' chair for some more sleep.

You might notice if you make a comment from now on or at least for the next day or two, that I have added the list of blogs I follow, a dropdown menu of the blog archives, and the top posts or pages in the last 24-48 hours ... back to the blog. This theme does not have a sidebar on the left or right nor would I want one because I prefer large wide pictures on my posts .... so the only place this WordPress theme lets me put them is below each post BUT BEFORE the comment section.

Let me know if you like that or not.

Besides getting use to the new camera I have also gotten use to the new Apple Watch and still like it just as much as when I figured out how it worked. That did not take me long to do that and each day I find something else it will provide or a different setting I can do so it's optimized to what I want or need.

It still is, in my eyes, the BEST electronic device I have ever bought since my first computer in 1995.

I am finding it to be very very accurate with the information it provides. It is very tempting today to drive over to Best Buy, 27 miles away and trade it for the 'cellular model', then pay Verizon another $10 per month and then sell my iPhone.

I have thought about that possibility.

In fact I spent a day using nothing but the watch to see if that option of replacing the phone was even possible. It is possible, but then again, that iPhone 8+ camera is still a very nice feature to have. Even with the Canon G9 taking good photos inside in low light conditions. And ... that iPhone screen just looks bigger now, after reading, replying to emails and texts on the watch the past few weeks.

The friends I contacted by phone tell me the reception is so much cleaner and clearer than when we speak on the phone. I have noticed the verbal emails and verbal texts I sent have better spelling accuracy than the iPhone that is only 13 months old.

I also like the sleep app better than what I had with Garmin Connect. I like the Apple Health app much more since I have finally synchronized it to the watch and the Cronometer or MyFitnessPal food tracking apps.

Everything works smoothly.

It's so quiet this morning I can hear my ears ring here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Some Evening Rambling Or Ranting

I guess if I can start the day really weird at 2:05am, then I can end the "blogging day" just as strange with some evening rambling. It's one of those times where I have a lot of stuff swirling in those brain cells of mine that need to come out on paper. Regular or past readers will recognize that as 'my rambling', with a lot of topics talked about and none of them in any kind of order.

Let's cover that first picture. That is my summary of the food I have eaten today. Those rusty color bars are really bright red on my screen, showing me that I am getting way too much and to make some adjustments. It also shows me that I probably need to take a multi-vitamin to make up for all the vitamins I don't get through food. I've known that for a year or so.

I get all of this information on the Cronometer FREE app on my phone, tablet, plus I can go to their webpage and see all of this on my large monitor as well as log the food I eat.


Do I plan on doing this forever, no I don't. Right now I am at what I consider a 'crossroads' to either get serious about my eating habits or screw it and eat everything I want in the quantities I want then feel like crap, feel guilty, feel frustrated and feel bloated. This will help me fine tune my eating habits.

My choice.

I almost returned my Canon G9 X camera again this morning. I had nothing planned and had plenty of time to make the trip to Best Buy. I have only a couple of days left to use their 15-day return policy ... but ... like I said the other day. This is a good camera that probably deals with more user error or lack of knowledge compared to my Nikon D3200. I also said the other day that I was keeping it because it did to some good things, even better than the Nikon D3200 or my iPhone camera. Plus I was going to learn more about the camera, getting to the point that it was taking the type of pictures I wanted.

The pictures from this afternoon were with the Canon G9 and NONE of them were edited in any way!!! I did use the flash for the first two pictures as a test on an overcast day. I could tell a slight difference. I have played with the color, contrast and sharpness settings and finally have them set where the pictures look like they do to my eyes.

I know that if I plan to take a lot of pictures on the walk from a distance, where I would use the 200mm zoom lens, then I should take the Nikon D3200 with me instead of the Canon.

The Canon G9 did survive another drop test. This time it wasn't the soft grass of the field that caught it ... it was that hard concrete floor of the carport. With the wrist strap on, as I slid off my right glove so I could touch my Apple Watch face to stop the timer for the walk ... the strap came off with the glove and the camera bounced on the concrete. So it now has some 'use marks' but still works perfectly.

The Canon G9 X is a keeper.

Back in October I was finally able to shut out all the news on tv, the headlines from online news websites completely out of my life. I LOVED IT!!! I felt much better, less stressed out, less pissed off and I enjoyed not hearing all the bullshit. Then on December 13th when I wanted to be more open, more energized with my blog writing, I returned to the tv news and started reading those online headlines. I added a few new tweeters that would give me political news you don't see on tv.

In a way ... a bad move on my part ... a very bad move.

I've said it a million times on this blog and my old blog ... there is no in-between with me. It's all or nothing. Mow all the yard or not at all. Track food intake or eat non-stop. Blog multiple times per day or quit. On and on and on. So .... with that in mind ....

My mind has been very active with those same concerns I have had for the past 3 years, even before the 2016 Presidential Election. Some would call it being paranoid but I call it being aware. I hate shit happening in the background to our country that is not covered by mainstream media online, tv or otherwise. It takes certain people to spend their time tracking the 'background' stuff and then putting it out in pubic for all to see.

How many really see it though?

I can assure you that if the general public knew some of this stuff there is no way they would be happy with what is going on. You and I might not be living when the final results are in, but your children and grandchildren will. My niece and nephew will, along with their kids. The children of my friends will be affected. What is happening right under our eyes is real.

What I am talking about is the underground movement of the Muslim 20-year plan of taking over the USA. Yes, I believe that plan when I saw it.
I'll even go find it and link it here. I found the link but it would not let me copy the full url, just the website dot com url. It's a movement that is working just as they planned, right on schedule.

It's just not a religion/politics thing.

This isn't the old days when the media argued that a Catholic was going to be elected President when John F. Kennedy was winning. This isn't going through Congress and listing each with their religion beliefs next to their name. This is a planned movement with dates and milestones that have been reached. The Catholics didn't want to take over the country if he was elected. Nor did the Protestants when other presidents were elected. But the Muslim Movement does and say they will.

It is happening right in front of us and the US citizens either don't see it, don't understand it or are too lackadaisical to believe it. "That would never happen here!!!!"

Even two hundred or more years ago we were warned:

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter." ~ George Washington

As I have said before ... I believe in immigration as long as they are vetted, and follow the legal process to become a citizen. I also understand that poor people want the best for their kids and will risk their lives to get to America for a better lifestyle. But I also understand why the Democrats are not interested in any kind of wall ... they need voters, illegal or not.

I hate people who take advantage of our country's constitution, our country's generosity and our system to live for free. Paid for by the taxpayers and affecting all of us in services provided or not provided because of overwhelming floods of illegal aliens taking over those systems. Do I understand this right ... we will help an illegal alien but not a homeless veteran living on the streets? Don't even get me started on that topic!!

Do not get me started on the argument of homeless US citizens without help or NOT ENOUGH help compared to the open hand and all the free programs and MONEY to give a start to someone who has illegally entered our country. Families or not, I don't care. Follow the damn laws!!!!

It was estimated today that they can account for almost 900,000 voters in the 2018 mid-term elections were NOT US citizens. Something I saw last week, over 463,000 California residents turned down their legal duty for jury duty BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT LEGAL CITIZENS!!!!

They pick the names for jury duty from lists of registered voters!!!! Any ... legal addresses. Yes, that's true, no fake news here.

I have NO problems with families from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, or any other country coming to America to start a new life. I know there are many successful stories and many of those families are happy for the help they received. That is the 'good' side of illegal immigration. I have no problems as long as these people start the process under current law to become citizens.

What I DO have a problem with is:

• 63% of non-citizen illegal aliens are using a welfare program intended for the poor and needy Americans


• 4,684,784 non-citizen households are receiving welfare payments


• These numbers from a 2014 census data ... almost 5 years ago!!!!

Illegal aliens are taught the system before they get to the border. They get free housing, free food-stamps, roughly $1,200 per month to get started, free internet, free cell phones, free medical service. SOME laugh and send their monthly money back home south of the border that totals in the millions of non-taxable income. It's not just non-citizens ... it's the poor "white trash" they call them, in trailer parks (no offense), white people, black people who know how to play the system for free services and money even if fraud is evident.

Does anyone believe the numbers furnished by the Border Patrol on how many with criminal records, members of MS-13 gangs, drug mules or child sex trade are stopped at the border EVERYDAY??? Are those numbers just made up? Is that census just made up numbers? Aren't the numbers shocking to you?

What is it that people don't understand about this immigration mess? What is it that people don't understand about the underground control of Muslim influence in our governments from the state level to Washington DC?

I personally know people of the Muslim faith, others that are immigrants from other countries. Even my small town of less than 2,400 people have residents from China, Iran, Iraq, India, Mexico (some illegal), etc. Some are waiters, waitresses, store owners, small shop owners, or restaurant owners. I have no problems and never had any problems with any of them living in my small town.

I do have a problem with my state electing Muslims to State Government who brag that "their movement" is gaining steam and by 2030 they expect to have 30-35 in Congress. I DO have a problem when these same elected officials have past or current ties to some of the most violent terrorists groups in the Mid Eastern countries. I DO have a problem with Shari Law being mentioned in the state of Indiana. I DO have a problem with what I read in the IndyStar, where US laws are circumvented, so a Muslim organization can build that Mosque or that school where they have been turned down before. It makes me puke to hear or read where laws have been avoided at the request of Muslim Organizations.

These are not the immigrants our grandparents were or their parents were. Those immigrants in the 20's 30's and 40s were not coming to America to take over a country due to their religious belief ... they came to America for a better life and to become American Citizens ... to adapt to American way of life ... not telling us we will conform to their way of life and to their laws.

If you think I am full of bullshit and paranoid as hell concerning what I have written here ... then do your own searches on the Internet and see what you find. It's alarming, I guarantee you. As a search engine I strong urge you to use DuckDuckGo ... throw that Google Search in the trashcan.

I'm not finished yet.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

She graduated from Brown University, an Ivy League school ... so she is smart just not some babbling idiot. She has a BS Degree in Economics ... although some things she has said that she wants to implement make no economic sense. Instead of using that degree she was a waitress then a bartender at a NY bar when she ran for public office. Somehow she was elected to Congress!!!!  Think about that. Sure Trump had no political experience but he had business experience. I'll not go into a rant about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez but I will say she is dangerous to your and my way of life.

This quote says all I need to know about her. She sent this to the Washington Post.

“I’m six days into the term, and you already used all your ammo. So enjoy being exhausted for the next two years while we run train on the progressive agenda”

Many 'normal' people that see that will have no idea what "run train" means. I know I didn't know what it meant when I saw it and some accuse me of not being normal. "Run Train" is a slang term used by MS-13 gangs for violently gang raping women or young girls. How did and why did Alexandria become elected? Democratic readers ... you want to claim her as part of your party?

History shows this is not the first time that US Government has been backstabbed. It isn't the first time the US Government has faced a Socialist charge and people screaming for a change in the way of life. "Rob the rich and give to the poor" ...

I am not rich by any stretch of the imagination but I do have a healthy savings account. I do help people in need with either financial donations or food donations etc. I have no problems giving help to those in need, no matter what their race is or religious beliefs are. I give when I want to give or feel there is someone that needs help.

But if you want tax me, then FORCE me to support those in need ... I'll tell you to fuck off and fight you to the very end for what is mine. I feel sorry for the residents of California. I have a few friends of 45 years or more that live in that state. I in fact lived in that state when things were sane. Their newly elected governor now wants to tax drinking water to support all the illegal aliens coming into their state. Will that change the laws that Governor Brown implemented, fining residents ~$1,000 for watering their lawns or washing their cars due to a lack of water in their state?

Is the whole country going to get taxed so we can support the 22 million illegal aliens living within our borders, eating for free, medical for free, etc? They say 11 million officially but have recently confessed they really don't know and think the true number is closer to 22 million.

Just because the USA is considered a rich nation (IMO it's no longer rich), how can it be considered rich at 20 TRILLION in Debt and a DAILY interest payment of $634 MILLION PER DAY!!!!! do we as a country have an obligation to open our borders up to everyone else in the world so they can live, eat, make more kids, medical help, internet, phones, drivers licenses etc because we have the best way of life anywhere in the world?

Are we that obligated?

I'm losing my train of thought again.

I'm sure there was more I wanted to talk about.

Oh I have a question ... if these government workers not getting paid are having to hit free lunches and food pantries to feed your families .... WHY DIDN'T YOU PUT SOME MONEY IN SAVINGS!!!!!! YOU ALL WERE PAID VERY VERY WELL, ENOUGH TO SAVE SOME!!!!!

I know how much you make because I use to be a government worker and later a contractor. I KNOW how many people making $60K five years ago, sitting in their cubicles doing NOTHING because they had not been assigned a project to work on or were just a natural-born slacker. I KNOW how many on a base of 8,000 really do work and how many don't. I KNOW how many of those salaries are paid by 'overhead' not by 'project money'. BELIEVE ME ... THIS SHUTDOWN IS NOT HURTING AS MANY AS YOU THINK.

"Two weeks from losing my house" ... IMO you should have put some of that overpaid salary in the bank CALLED A SAVINGS ACCOUNT!!!!! Or made some extra house payments and try to pay off your mortgage early.

IMO, Trump will hold out longer than anyone realized and it's only a way of privatizing the TSA, closing down Government Departments that should be shut down and off the payroll, that will naturally 'weed out' the excess workers as they look for other employment or process paperwork for food stamps, welfare, disability, free cell phones, free internet, free medical just like all the other ILLEGAL ALIENS do.

I guess that is about all for tonight ....

Go ahead and say anything you want as a comment ... I know how to take "incoming" :)

LOL

A Slow Quiet Afternoon

As I thought it might happen, nothing much happened this afternoon. That drizzle I mentioned this morning never stopped. In fact by early afternoon it looked more like a light rain. Stella and I did not venture anywhere out of the yard. Heidi did her lap around the house after lunch and Stella decided she wasn't going any further than 10' from the door. With the light a little rain and no urge to watch any kind of tv, it was a perfect time ... for a four hour siesta!! I caught up on some good quality sleep that I was short on from the 'strange morning' but one problem. I had very few pictures for this post. It was still a good day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.